KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The war in Afghanistan may no longer be forgotten but the true victims always are.

Having been denied healthcare and education under the Taliban, Afghan women are now training as midwives

Women and children in the landlocked Asian country have continuously paid the ultimate price throughout the decades of conflict and war.

It is their lives that are considered not precious enough to save.

A woman here dies every 29 minutes due to childbirth complications, according to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) -- one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.

One in four children die before they reach the age of five because of the lack of health care and medical facilities in their cities and villages.

But ignorance is also deadly.

Misguided cultural pride prevents men from allowing their women to see a doctor, merely because the doctor could be male.

And in many cases, it's not just women who die from childbirth-related issues. It is young girls forced into marriage before they even reach puberty. Their still-forming bodies cannot handle the complications of childbirth.

But there are women in Afghanistan stepping up within the crowds of the forgotten and pushing past the barriers. They are training as midwives across the country to help bring change and save lives.

"We have to introduce them with what to do, what foods to eat, how to take care of themselves.

"[We] tell their husbands how to treat them. There are some husbands who beat their wives to the point where they can no longer even get pregnant."

At the Ibni Sina Balkhi Midwifery Training Center in Kabul, dozens of future midwives study and practise in the hope of bringing a brighter future to their countrywomen.

"It's very heartbreaking," Ibrahimi said of the situation women face. "Afghanistan has gone through so much war and most girls were not allowed to get an education, so I want to study and bring forth something new."

Sympathy for Afghan women is the strongest motivating force among students in this field: Many know personally what is like to live in a society where pregnant women are ignored and forgotten.